The Tiger Woods Crash: Why People Even Care (Essay)

By

John Paul Newport

Nov 29, 2009 7:11 pm ET

John Paul Newport has written the Wall Street Journal’s weekly Golf Journal column since June 2006. Newport is the author of “The Fine Green Line,” an account of his year spent competing on pro golf’s mini-tours in an effort to qualify for the PGA Tour, published in 2000 by Broadway Books.

Most fender-benders, even those involving celebrities, don’t attract the attention surrounding Tiger Woods’s little mishap Friday. But the curious circumstances surrounding the incident were enough to bring out the cop-show detective in everyone with an Internet connection and a little extra time over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The world’s richest and probably most famous athlete smashes into a fire hydrant and then a tree less than a pitch shot away from his own driveway. At 2:25 a.m. And then is reportedly rescued by his wife, who tells police she used a golf club to smash the rear windows of the car. And then thrice rebuffs visits from the police to talk about the accident, including most recently Sunday afternoon.

The two, extremely terse statements about the incident posted by the Woods camp on tigerwoods.com did little to satisfy the public’s interest. On the contrary, the statements only egged on the world’s amateur sleuths. What really happened, and why? The puzzle is irresistible.